There two reports on grand theft cases hot of the presses today over at the Examiner.
First up, the story of a Chinatown wedding scammer. The paper reports that 45-year-old Stanley Kwan was a San Francisco wedding planner whose business, To Have and To Hold, operated during the early to mid-aughts. It sounds like he started legit, but in 2005 and 2006 Kwan stopped rendering services he'd been paid to provide.The total loss to his victims amounted to $60,000, court records state.
So a warrant for Kwan's arrest was issued in 2009, but he was on honeymoon from the law until 2012. In April, he pleaded no contest to four counts of grand theft in connection with To Have and To Hold, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Yesterday he turned himself in to serve a four-year prison sentence. So far Kwan has paid $7,000 of restitution, and he's going to be held liable for the rest.
Next on the scam beat, the Examiner is also reporting on a would-be (but actually not) massage-school teacher. An SF man was arrested last week and charged on Monday with 10 counts of grand theft involving a phony massage school, one that didn't license massage therapists as promised, says the District Attorney’s Office.
65-year-old Frank Tu offered his classes back in 2011, but was not technically accredited or anything, so his victims lost between $1,500 and $3,000 each. That added up to a total loss of $17,000, court records indicate. And, cruelly, all victims were non-English speaking Chinese Immigrants.